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Video game sales thread December: It's over, use the new thread

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And yes, I've played them (Well, I've played God of War and Ninja Gaiden. Both 1 and 2 of both series). The puzzles are facile and I really can't consider them a significant drawing point for the series. It's a bit like saying Portal is a combat game, because you kill GlaDos at the end. No one buying these games are buying them for the puzzles, or combat, respectively.

The game's draws are 1) Graphics and presentation, and 2) Intense combat, focused on combos and reverses.

So is there supposed to be a Rock Band 3 this year? I ask becuase I'm on the Wii and due to its development dates, theres no support for large sd cards or track packs/albums in RB2. Beatles rock band recognised the large sd card so I'm hoping these things will be in place.

I'd ask in the Rock Band thread, but the only answer I ever get is " get a 360 and spend lots of money on the games again, and the guitars and the tracks I'd have to buy again" both in thread and in real life.

I call bullshit. Nobody here in that thread seriously pushes that advice unless the question you ask is 'Should I switch to a 360 for the Rock Band games?'

As far as RB3 this year, that's the expectation. Though nothing has been announced officially. They stated late last year (maybe at Gamescon) that there will probably be a full band RB game and RB3. The Green Day edition has already been announced, so that leaves RB3.

Digital distribution models continue to become more prevalent, but traditional physical purchases of console games are still dominant in the U.S., NPD Group said this week in its quarterly Games Acquisition Monitor report.

The tracking firm said that physical console game purchases -- both new and used -- accounted for 90 percent of all paid video game buys during calendar Q3, 2009 in the U.S. Meanwhile, 79 percent of games for portables, PC/Mac, mobile, and smartphones were bought in physical form.

NPD added that 70 percent of dual format (digital and physical) customers are under 35 years old; 46 percent of digital-only customers are under 35. "Dual format purchasers represent just 19 percent of all buyers but provide 40 percent of dollar volume," an NPD statement said.

"While physical retail product remains the driving force behind industry sales, the role of digital distribution in the games ecosystem continues to climb," said NPD analyst Anita Frazier. "Publishers and retailers must keep an eye on the current state of the marketplace and must map ahead for future strategies."

Annual U.S. retail video game console sales through November 2009 were $14.13 billion, down around 12 percent from 2008. Frazier said last month that she expects the U.S. retail console market to generate around $20 billion during 2009 in total, down from 2008's $21.33 billion. The official NPD figures for the whole of 2009 are expected to release later this week.

NPD also said that piracy (NPD defines piracy as "downloading files through Peer-to-Peer networks) is less prevalent in the games industry when compared to the music industry. Four percent of gamers, or about 6 million consumers, admitted they downloaded games from P2P networks. Seventy-two percent of those downloads occurred on PC and Mac.
NPD added that PC/Mac and consoles led portable systems and cell phones as the most popular gaming platforms during Q3 2009.

On the back of EA’s scaling back of its forward financial estimates, former executive VP of mobile and online Mitch Lasky has slammed boss John Riccitiello for what he considers to be the failures of his second spell at the helm of the publisher.

“By far the greatest failure of Riccitiello's strategy has been the EA Games division,” the exec, now a partner at investment specialists Benchmark Capital, stated on his blog.

“JR bet his tenure on EA's ability to ‘grow their way through the transition’ to digital/online with hit packaged goods titles. They honestly believed that they had a decade to make this transition.

“Since the recurring-revenue sports titles were already ‘booked’ it fell to EA Games to make hits that could move the needle. It's been a very ugly scene, indeed. From Spore, to Dead Space, to Mirror's Edge, to Need for Speed: Undercover, it's been one expensive commercial disappointment for EA Games after another.

“Not to mention the shut-down of Pandemic, half of the justification for EA's $850m acquisition of Bioware-Pandemic. And don't think that Dante's Inferno, or Knights of the Old Republic, is going to make it all better. It's a bankrupt strategy.”
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Lasky goes on to express his surprise that no-one has yet moved to acquire the publisher, going as far as to name-drop a couple of potential suitors.

“With EA's enterprise value down below $4bn, it's remarkable that nobody has stepped in to put them out of their misery with an acquisition,” he states. “Certainly, Disney has been looking at them since I was at the house of the mouse back in the early ‘90s. And there are Chinese companies, like TenCent, that could easily swallow EA whole.

“It's equally amazing that the board continues to support the existing management team through this debacle. Since JR took over, the company has destroyed over $11 billion in market value.”

Gameplay-wise, it's such a blatant, flagrant rip-off of God Of War that if some no-name indie publisher released it and not EA, I'd be pretty sure that Sony would sue them.

Gameplay wise, God of War is an enormous rip off of games like Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden.

I think what you mean is that Dante's Inferno seems to rip God of War's atmosphere. Western canonical lore, huge, god like enemies.

It's more the fact that button for button, what you input does the same thing as God of War.

Yeah, much as God of War does take a hell of a lot from other action games, it leaves a lot behind as well. In my opinion, to its detriment. But Dante's Inferno is almost a re-skin. Hell, they make the scythe have an extendo-spine, so all the combos are basically the same.

- Fifa 10 charted in 1st place and Fifa 09 charted in 8th places. Compared to last year in 2008, Fifa 09 charted in 1st place and Fifa 08 charted in 16th place.

- For every 100 copies sold of Modern Warfare 2, in comparison, Fifa 10 sold 88 copies, The Sims 3 sold 52.4 units and Assassins Creed 2 sold 30.4 copies.

- New Super Mario Bros DS was on 13th place in 2008, but in 2009 it climbed up to 6th place (i am not sure if New Super Mario Bros DS sold more in 2008 or in 2009 though, but at least it charted 7 places higher in 2009 compared to in 2008 ).

- Compared to chart positions in 2008 to 2009, Wii Fit fell from 15th or 21th place, World of Warcraft: Wrath Of The Lich King fell from 3rd to 26th place, and GTA IV fell from 2nd place to 27th place.

Gameplay-wise, it's such a blatant, flagrant rip-off of God Of War that if some no-name indie publisher released it and not EA, I'd be pretty sure that Sony would sue them.

Gameplay wise, God of War is an enormous rip off of games like Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden.

I think what you mean is that Dante's Inferno seems to rip God of War's atmosphere. Western canonical lore, huge, god like enemies.

It's more the fact that button for button, what you input does the same thing as God of War.

It is actually good development practice to have your game copy the buttons for the best games in your genre. Kind of like how I expect every FPS to have either Halo or CoD controls as the default. One great thing about Borderlands is that I can switch back and forth between it and Modern Warfare without having to retrain my mind.

It is also easier to sale someone on the game after a demo or rental if they don't have to spend the first half an hour playing with the controls.

You aren't going to get sued, unless your game has the exact same level layouts with everything from rocks placed in the same spots and timed events happening at exactly the same time.

You can't sue because someone used the same idea. It is all about if the implementation copied verbatim. Otherwise Tolkien's family would have been able to sue hundreds of writers and Tom Petty could have sued the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

I've got good news and bad news about 6th level, That Guy. The good news is that Forbiddance spell allows you to prevent enemies different alignment from entering a consecrated area, which is actually useful! The bad news is that the only other new sixth level spell makes lunch for everybody. Guess which one the party is going to expect you to cast.

God of War owes a huge debt to Devil May Cry, in the same sense that Half-Life owes a huge debt to Doom. That said, GoW took the fast, juggle-heavy combat and made its own worthwhile experience with a fantastic setting that seemed both freshly different and respectful toward the source material (assuming you can call the genocide of the entire Greek pantheon respectful), tight controls and decent light puzzling.

Whereas Beavis and Butt-head's Inferno doesn't really bring anything new or well-done to the table besides "we've got demon wangs and tits, look how edgy we are! Also we're artful, because we're talking about the same broad cultural concept some other famous dude did a few centuries ago."

I've got good news and bad news about 6th level, That Guy. The good news is that Forbiddance spell allows you to prevent enemies different alignment from entering a consecrated area, which is actually useful! The bad news is that the only other new sixth level spell makes lunch for everybody. Guess which one the party is going to expect you to cast.

God of War owes a huge debt to Devil May Cry, in the same sense that Half-Life owes a huge debt to Doom. That said, GoW took the fast, juggle-heavy combat and made its own worthwhile experience with a fantastic setting that seemed both freshly different and respectful toward the source material (assuming you can call the genocide of the entire Greek pantheon respectful), tight controls and decent light puzzling.

Whereas Beavis and Butt-head's Inferno doesn't really bring anything new or well-done to the table besides "we've got demon wangs and tits, look how edgy we are! Also we're artful, because we're talking about the same broad cultural concept some other famous dude did a few centuries ago."

Yeah, not defending it at all. Just saying that there is no basis to sue and that using the same controls as the genre leader is a good thing.

Sad thing is that what you described in your second paragraph is enough to make a bunch of people buy it. I wouldn't be surprised if the sales are a lot better than we want them to be.

Really? ....really? I thought GameStop carried everything on its online store, same with Amazon. But apparently not. GameStop said no to roughly 21 percent of all Wii games. I wonder how many makers of shovelware thought they could fart something out and have it sell along with all the other Wii shovelware, but got cockblocked.

1421 Wii titles have been rated? So there've been 1421 Wii games over time. And Gamestop currently sells 595.

That seems reasonable. It's not like Gamestop needs to stock every game ever released ever at all times. If something is a couple of years old and nobody's buying it, and the publisher has discontinued it, why should they try and stock more once it's gone?

As far as new games, however, that is obviously a problem. If game X is just released and they don't bother stocking it, not even online, then it's a problem. But saying 'zomg not bothering with 300 games' is misleading.

As far as Mad Dog, why should gamestop still have and sell it? It came out in June of 2009. There was barely any demand for it. They probably only got in a few copies at each store. They probably had trouble selling those few. Once they got rid of that sales dog there's no reason to order more. The publisher probably stopped printing copies after that initial print run.

If someone wants Mad Dog Wii, they should have bought it when it was new. Anyone knows that trying to buy some niche game seven months after its release is going to be difficult.

As far as Mad Dog, why should Gamestop still have and sell it? It came out in June of 2009. There was barely any demand for it. They probably only got in a few copies at each store. They probably had trouble selling those few. Once they got rid of that sales dog there's no reason to order more. The publisher probably stopped printing copies after that initial print run.

If someone wants Mad Dog Wii, they should have bought it when it was new. Anyone knows that trying to buy some niche game seven months after its release is going to be difficult.

Not to mention that this isn't the first time Mad Dog McCree has been trotted out for consoles. I'm sure the PS2-era version was a massive sales dog, so I wouldn't blame Gamestop for not bringing more than a handful of copies of Mad Dog McWii.

Edit - Shit, used is selling for more than it did when it was released.

That same link is showing this:

27 new from $57.98
25 used from $34.85
2 collectible from $43.99

Gamestop is also showing that game for $25 used and there are several retail locations around my area (Houston) that have it in stock used.

It goes for about $25-$35 with shipping on Ebay.

Anyway, yeah, some people though are asking $100 or more for it, which while that is absurd, that is the New / Unopened price. And considering it's still a classic game I don't know if it really is all that surprising. Absurd perhaps but not surprising for factory sealed copies.

I understand $100 or more for factory unopened copies of old NES/SNES games. But a game that just come out, what, two years ago? Who is really going to buy that? Especially with part 2 coming out in a month.

Gameplay-wise, it's such a blatant, flagrant rip-off of God Of War that if some no-name indie publisher released it and not EA, I'd be pretty sure that Sony would sue them.

Hahahah. That's cute. Post of the day.

Gameplay wise, God of War is an enormous rip off of games like Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden.

I'd assume you make this link because Dante's Inferno seems to rip God of War's atmosphere. Western canonical lore, huge, god like enemies, and the like. I absolutely make the same connection, but not just for gameplay reasons.

Yes.

I had an... interesting convesation with a friend a week ago. Told him I had Bayonetta and Dark Siders. He was completely uninterested in Bayonetta but wanted to know what I thought of Dark Siders. I told him both were like Devil May Cry/God of War, but that Dark Siders had dungeons and gameplay that reminded me of the 3D Zelda games.

"Dude. Devil May Cry and God of War are nothing alike."

I told him that they were both pretty comparable as 3D action games, but with different nuances.

"They're still nothing alike. DMC has some annoying half naked pretty boy and God of War has some bad ass."

I'm pretty sure the guy in God of War was half naked too...

"Yeah, but that's how it was back in Greece."

I changed the subject. He didn't want to play Bayonetta because of, I guess, the woman, where as Dark Siders was okay because it had a big beefy man in it.

I now think he's totally in the closet.

I just don't get that same level of enjoyment out of it any more that I used to. The novelty is gone. The freshness is gone. I don't get that "feeling" like I'm "playing" the music any more.

The exact same feeling that musicians had when they played the game.

Like them or not, God Of War at least bothered to add gameplay aspects to (and subtract some from) the games it ripped off. The schmoes behind Dante's Inferno didn't even bother with that.

GoW was pretty terrible and I don't expect much from DI, so in the end it's a moot point.

OMG Deep Impact totally ripped off Armageddon!

I'm really not sure how to reply to ridiculous crap like that, especially when you don't seem to have even played the game. Personally, I'd draw more similarities with games like Prince of Persia and Onimusha, since God of War has a far greater emphasis on the puzzles and platforming than DMC has ever even tried to do.

I'm no expert, but in my experience, the main type of "puzzle" GoW employed was the use of "find switch" because "there's an invisible wall there stopping you from accomplishing something you normally can do in the game".

GoW fucking sucked. Elevating it so high and pretending that it's being emulated is ridiculous.

There's a reason I'm so cool on games like DMC, God of War, and Bayonetta and enjoy Dark Siders instead. And I guess Ninja Gaiden, but that's mainly due to it being ridiculously streamlined.

I have not yet laid final judgment on Bayonetta, but if it's okay for Bayonetta to pander to kids through it's emphasis on tits, then I don't see how that can be used as a mark against DI.

And I never played Onimusha.

I just say they are all Ocarina of Time clones since it took Nintendo to show bitches how to do action in a 3D environment.

GoW never felt more than simply an action game in 3D. DMC had some appealing aspects to it before it started getting cloned. Ninja Gaiden streamlined the whole thing to ridiculous numbers. Darksiders offers exploration, puzzles, and non linearity.

What did GoW do? QTEs and sex mini games?

God of War owes a huge debt to Devil May Cry, in the same sense that Half-Life owes a huge debt to Doom.

I don't think the two situations are comparable in the slightest. Half Life isn't hailed because it's a good FPS (even though it is). It's accolades come from taking the genre in an entirely new direction. It's still a corridor shooter, but there's so many new ideas in Half Life that it easily sets itself apart.

If anything, Half Life owes a bit to Duke Nukem. Personality, interactivity, etc.

I have not yet laid final judgment on Bayonetta, but if it's okay for Bayonetta to pander to kids through it's emphasis on tits, then I don't see how that can be used as a mark against DI.

Look, Dante's Inferno is catching shit by absconding with the name of classic literature in order to be cool.

God of War was better. Know why? Because it absconded with Greek mythology and people like pressing the X button over and over.

Or something...

Totally different.

No man, 'abusing' someones religion is so much worse then their literature. Don't you see?

Feh.

People are just upset they didn't call it 'Generic Hell and Gore: The Game'. But then, the game I most look forward to is 'Tits: Just Because', so I might not be the most open-minded.

Hey, Santa, where have you been?

Guessing the stupid in the ME thread started to get to you?

Also, on DI. Like I said, I really don't care about the source material and I will admit I don't even like GoW much. It just seems like basically, they took GoW, a game I already didn't care for. And somehow made it worse.

I think Dante's Inferno is derivative and boring; to be fair, though, I also think God of War II and Chains of Olympus (and likely God of War III) are just as derivative and boring. I actually enjoyed the first game, but subsequent sequels have just aped the pacing and stuck so close to the formula that worked the first time that any sort of newness has long worn off. Chains of Olympus was novel because it's a PSP game that gets really freaking close to the experience of the PS2 game, but the overall story structure and individual gameplay mechanics were so similar that I had the feeling I'd already played it as soon as I started.

Echo these sentiments for pretty much every Zelda game after Link to the Past ... although oddly, I find myself curious about Darksiders, even though it sits in the exact same spot as Dante's Inferno. I guess I'm wondering if the change in scenery and combat mechanics will make the formula seem fresh.

Dante's Inferno is just EA attempting to use classic literature to make their boring hack n' slash shock game seem like high art, nothing more/nothing less. At least Mirror's Edge had an artsy feel all it's own without having to resort to any cheap stupidity.

Oh, and I'm with Sheep. GoW is a horribly terrible game. Gameplay is just press X until they die, or press X until a QTE pops up so you can kill them. Oh, and yes, I blame GoW for making QTE popular so that every dev felt their game needed QTE to do cool stuff intead of letting the player, you know, actually do the cool stuff themselves. Bleh.

Echo these sentiments for pretty much every Zelda game after Link to the Past ... although oddly,

Mother fucking yes.

Link to the Past. Epitome. Everything else is just a 3D remake.

As for Darksiders, it's pretty much God of War/Bayonetta/Ninja Gaiden and then BOOM Ocarina of Time. Doesn't really do anything at all that would be considered new. It is an excellent mashup of the best parts of other games.